Engineering Technology

In this article, Scatolini and Van Maele reflect on 'learning to live together', one of UNESCO's Four Pillars of Education, from their experience as faculty at GROUP T -Leuven Education College's 'International Educating Class' [IEC]. They explore how this pillar can infuse an international dimension into the curriculum and describe how it informed the objectives, contents and method of two core modules of IEC, namely 'Society, Education, and Intercultural Dialogue', and 'Living Together in 2025'. The former module covers the horizontal dimension, focusing on living together across space, whereby students' attention is drawn to various barriers to educational opportunities and how to overcome them. The latter module takes a vertical approach, focusing on living together across time. By picturing scenarios in the future that are based on robust trends reaching into the past, students discover route planners for navigating the present. Bartholomé offers a concrete example of how he has been seeking to apply the insights gained during his participation as a student in the IEC in 'Brasil Feliz,' a multifaceted educational project in Brazil.

"Although the Erasmus Programme is celebrating its 25th anniversary, the effects of international study experiences have only recently drawn a wider interest from researchers in the field (Dervin, 2009). This presentation addresses the question of how intercultural competence (IC) is conceived by a mixed group of home and international students in a postgraduate programme in development studies, in which the authors deliver a module on intercultural communication.
The study aims to discover the explicit and implicit meanings that students (n=23) attribute to IC through a combination of content analysis (presence, prominence) and discourse analysis (modality, metaphor). Data was collected at the beginning and towards the end of the programme in three forms: (1) written definitions of IC in response to open questions; (2) oral clarification of positions on a series of statements regarding IC; and (3) written narrative accounts of recent intercultural encounters (Hoffman, 2009). Next, students were invited for an interview at which they commented on the findings, relating observed changes in their representation of IC to events and experiences in and outside the classroom.
In conclusion, the authors reflect on how the research outcomes have informed their practice as teachers of intercultural communication."

As employees increasingly work in international, multi-cultural settings, success in intercultural professional communication requires not only language skills, but also the ability to understand and deal with cultural differences. The European project CEFcult (www.cefcult.eu) develops an online platform which aims to support the joint achievement of these competences by offering authentic scenarios, validated assessment frameworks and a community of people (both novices and experts) with similar interests. The European Commission strongly emphasizes the importance of implementing projects' outcomes in different contexts and settings after the projects' life. This is not so easy, as it requires involvement and dedication of different types of organizations, from business as well as from the academic side.

This chapter illustrates how e-assessment of oral proficiency in the foreign language can be designed and conducted in ways that enhance the students’ learning experience. Referring to the authors’ experiences with the WebCEF and CEFcult assessment platforms, the chapter shows how a variety of technical functionalities of these two online tools create a supportive environment for a pedagogical approach known as assessment for learning. The discussion focuses on three key principles of the approach: the structural involvement of learners in the assessment process, the elicitation of effective feedback, and the development of self-assessment skills. While documenting the great potential of online assessment environments for gaining insight in language learning, the chapter also points out some of its current limitations and how ongoing research might help to overcome these.

When promoting intercultural learning in the context of study and placement mobility, intercultural educators are specifying what students should be learning. Research not only confirms the genuine impact of real-life intercultural contact on intercultural learning, but also shows how this impact can be enhanced through institutional support and the integration of intercultural learning into the curriculum. In this position paper, we propose a number of considerations that need to be taken into account in setting learning objectives for mobile students.
Referring to research and policy documents mostly in relation to the European
mobility context, we address consecutively what students are learning in study
and placement mobility; what they say they want to learn; what they should learn
for; and finally, what they should be learning. We conclude that intercultural
educators should pay heed to what students are actually learning in study and
placement mobility over a time span that transcends the current sojourn abroad.
We also recommend that educators take steps to support students in mobilising
the intercultural skills they acquired abroad for increased employability.

The ILTA Code of Ethics admonishes that language testing professionals “should engage in a thorough evaluation of the likely consequences” of their projects (ILTA, 2000). Following Bachman & Palmer (2010), the “beneficence” of the intended consequences of a test and the “values sensitivity” of the decisions made on the basis of an assessment constitute two essential components of any assessment use argument. In this poster we investigate what these components could mean in view of the possible introduction of an internationally recognized and commercially available large-scale English language test in Cuba. Bearing in mind how new a phenomenon nationwide foreign language certification is in the country, the general question that we seek to answer is: What should and what can be done in order to maximize the chance that introducing the test would bring about good in Cuban society taking account of the (evolving) educational, sociopolitical, and legal environment?

The authors are academics who have collaborated in long-term institutional university cooperation and network projects of the Flemish Interuniversity Council (Belgium) with universities in Cuba. In the Council’s country strategy for Cuba, English language learning and communication is listed as one of three transversal themes for all current and future interventions (http://www.vliruos.be/en/countries/countrydetail/cuba_3850/). Based on their experiences in a previous ten-year project in central Cuba, the authors concluded in 2011 that there was a need for establishing a regional testing center, noting the following key issues: (a) intercultural citizenship for Cuban academics, (b) sustainable local institutional development, (c) validity of administered tests, and (d) privacy and confidentiality issues. This need was reiterated in the external assessors’ final evaluation report (Carpenter & Vigil Tarquechel, 2013). Since then initiatives have been started up to establish testing centers in the context of a new project in eastern Cuba in view of the stated project goal of strengthening foreign language skills for intercultural and international academic purposes.

It is expected that the introduction of an internationally recognized test at regional testing centers could contribute to increased opportunities for Cuban academics to study and work abroad while providing an adequate answer to the previously identified key issues. At the same time, a number of concerns have been raised related to accessibility, administration, impact on instructional practice, and the question of how to address some of the more elusive competences than the ones commonly captured in standardized testing, particularly the intercultural competences required for a successful academic mobility experience.

The poster will report an initial answer to the general research question based on a stakeholder mapping exercise (identifying, analyzing, mapping, prioritizing) at project, institutional, and regional level that was conducted during the first two project years. Given that outward mobility for Cuban academics in the project concerned is almost exclusively Europe-bound, perspectives of European policymakers and students on academic mobility will also be included (Beaven, Borghetti, Van Maele & Vassilicos, 2013).

To date, there is not yet a consensus on how best to address the development of intercultural competencies in engineering education. Both theory and practice often reveal different or opposing views on the purposes, curriculum, and principal stakeholders in this process. This paper highlights some of the basic tensions behind the prevailing views and considers different ways in which these tensions can be managed. While engineering educators have traditionally attempted to resolve these tensions by choosing one option above the other, the authors present an alternative approach that embraces these tensions by coping with seemingly contradictory options and engaging with multiple narratives. This is illustrated with reference to an undergraduate engineering course on intercultural communication at the authors' institution.

In order to provide better support for students in higher education throughout a mobility experience, it is important to understand their point of view regarding stay abroad. This paper analyzes the responses of pre-departure, while-abroad, and upon-return students of different academic backgrounds (N = 990) to an open question that asked them to name the three most essential factors for making their stay abroad experience successful. This question was part of a wider online questionnaire distributed in Europe by the IEREST project (http://ierest-project.eu). A sequential mixed-method procedure identified six themes that were frequently cited: language and communication, social contacts, practicalities, personal development, academic advantages, and travel. This paper presents a more detailed analysis of the first three themes. It shows that although language proficiency was the single most frequently mentioned aspect, students attached particular importance to aspects of personal development (in particular with respect to openness) and social contacts (crucially including friendship). These findings informed the development of teaching materials within IEREST for supporting intercultural learning in the Erasmus context and may also be relevant to educators and researchers in various other study abroad contexts.

Baten, L., Van Maele, J., Díaz Moreno, Y., Dàvila Pérez, G., van Splunder, F. (2017). Stakeholder views on the assessment and certification of English language proficiency in global interuniversity collaboration. 39th Language Testing Research Colloquium. Bogotá, 19-21 July 2017.

Autonomous learning means that students should have a ‘capacity for detachment, critical  reflection, decision-making, and independent action’ (Little, 1991). It is a capacity taken for  granted with PhD students applying for a scholarship in a global context. Moreover, in an  academic environment, this capacity needs to be displayed in English. As an entry ticket to this
world, candidates have to provide valid certificates proving their level of English. However, do
these certificates also cover their autonomy (in English) in working, studying, networking at their
host universities?
In the process of project design and implementation, stakeholder expectations need to be
regularly consulted. Since 2004, Flanders (Belgium) and Cuba have cooperated in capacity
building projects for research in human and natural sciences, engineering and technology
in higher education, granting joint PhDs to Cuban students (http://www.vliruos.be), with
the use of English as the lingua franca. This certification requirement has so far been an
internal issue with many pitfalls and frustrations on both sides, as criteria were debatable
and requirements of the Flemish host universities differing. In 2013, we started a transversal
project at Universidad de Oriente (Santiago de Cuba) to find out how local tests may cross-
fertilize with standardized international tests, and hopefully lead to the launch of an official
language testing center by 2018, when the project ends. Recent political evolutions in Cuba
have made this undertaking all the more adamant as the local situation now presses for
more robust test validity and for assessment literacy from all stakeholders. As emphasized
by different speakers at the recent Language Testing Literacy Symposium at Lancaster
University (2016), this endeavor should include not only the testers and language instructors,
but also the test users and university administrators.
Following Morris and Baddache’s (2012) five-step approach to stakeholder engagement, this
poster outlines the perspectives of different stakeholders at the Universidad de Oriente with
respect to the assessment and certification of English language proficiency. Building on the
stakeholder mapping exercise in Van Maele, Rodríguez González, Díaz Moreno, van Splunder and  Baten (2015), in which we identified the most important stakeholder groups, we will now focus on the perspectives of the internal stakeholder groups, notably the language instructors, project leaders, PhD students, and university leadership on the Cuban side as well as the project leaders on the Flemish side. We will define the various engagement strategies and how to prepare for them, evaluate prior and on-going engagement actions, and report on the impact of the language assessment literacy trainings that have taken place.